(Indian soldiers patrol along the fence at the India-Pakistan border) With the India-Pakistan standoff somewhat waning, the time is ripe to put under the scanner the stance taken by the Trump administration through the crisis situation developing since the February 14 terrorist attack in Pulwama. On the face of it, Washington was strongly supportive of …
Continue reading “US kept ‘cool’ during India-Pak crisis. This is why”
(Saudi Crown Prince, Pakistan PM chair joint Supreme Coordination Council session, Islamabad, February 18, 2019) It is improbable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds a motor car driving licence. And it is an intelligent guess that even if he did possess one, Modi will not emulate Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan by driving the car …
(Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif personally briefs Iraq’s Grand Ayatollah Grand Ayatollah Bashir Hussain Najafi at his home in Najaf, regarding the Iran nuclear deal, before a visit to the Imam Ali shrine in the city, 27 July 2015.) The US President Donald Trump has been struggling to terminate America’s ‘endless wars’, but without much …
Continue reading “Iraq seeks US presence but rejects occupation”
(Russia test-fires enhanced version of RS-24 Yars thermonuclear intercontinental missile, 6th February, 2019.) The US president’s annual State of the Union address traditionally focuses on domestic issues but it also throws some light on the foreign policy priorities. President Trump’s speech on Tuesday adhered to the pattern and if anything, the portions on foreign policy …
Continue reading “‘America First’ means nuclear superiority”
(Turkey deploys battle tanks on border with Syria.) Trump’s tweets earlier today regarding Syrian withdrawal plan came out of the blue – “Starting the long overdue pullout from Syria while hitting the little remaining ISIS territorial caliphate hard, and from many directions. Will attack again from existing nearby base if it reforms. Will devastate Turkey …
Continue reading “Trump has mixed signals for Astana partners”
(Stalingrad of Syrian war: ancient Syrian city of Raqqa after US bombing) On December 17, Ankara was notified of President Trump’s decision on troop withdrawal from Syria. During an earlier phone conversation between him and President Recep Erdogan on Dec 14, Trump had pointedly asked and elicited a positive response from the Turkish leader as …
The annual summit meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh on Sunday was particularly important for Saudi Arabia as a display of its regional leadership. But the short meeting of the GCC leaders behind closed doors, lasting for less than an hour, ended highlighting the huge erosion of Saudi prestige lately. The litmus …
It is over a month since Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had announced that he was going to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin with a view to open a new page in the relations between the two countries following the incident over Syrian skies on September 17 when a Russian reconnaissance plane was …
Continue reading “Russia keeps Israel’s Netanyahu in anteroom”
(US-China Security & Diplomatic Dialogue, Nov 9, 2018) The joint press conference in Washington on Friday after the second US-China 2+2 (“Diplomatic & Security Dialogue”) throws much light on the tango between the two big powers. Delhi must draw some serious conclusions. Broadly, the American side is adopting a two-track approach – on the one …
The new kids on the block are unaware that not a year had passed since the Islamic Revolution in Iran 40 years ago when US sanctions against that country wasn’t a fact of life. Iran has weathered multiple rounds of sanctions before. As a BBC commentary put it, “Iranians will be forced into finding creative …
